We would carefully watch them to see whether their hands had been extended in friendship. I said that we would watch carefully to see whether they really had friendly intentions or their deceptive words were simply an attempt to disguise their hostile intentions.

This is very important to us. If the hand they had extended to us was an iron hand covered with a velvet glove, we would not extend our hand in response and we would not accept their friendship. I said we would be watching to see if they were hiding a dagger behind their smile.

Unfortunately, what happened was exactly what we suspected. In spite of all their claimed interests in fair and appropriate relations, the new American President and his administration did the opposite in practice. They wrote letters and sent messages.

They said publicly and in their private meetings that they wanted to normalize their relationship with the Islamic Republic, but they did the opposite in practice.

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